Seperated by Secrets
by twinesstar
Summary: lily and james are alive but the wizarding world doesnt know. just like they dont know that their children survived the attack from voldemort. secrets plauge this story. beware. similier to my other story across the sea.
1. Back to the Wizarding world

April 2000

Desiree – 21

Chloe – 2

Harry – 19 (almost 20)

Claire – 16

Julia – 12

Eliza – 9

**Lily and James Potter survived the attack against Voldemort but were told that Harry and Desiree did not survive. (If you are confused about Desiree read my story 'The Price We Pay') this is a story similar to 'across the sea' which I wrote a very long time ago. That one I will not be continuing since I have reread it and found plenty of problems with it. **

**Back to my point, Lily and James are living in America to escape the wizarding world and no one knows they are alive. **

Chapter 01

I – Lily Marie Potter – have lived in America for nearly 19 years with my husband James. We left the wizarding world and Britain because we had been told that our two children Harry and Desiree had not survived the attack. We could not bear to hear the sympathy that would come with losing our two children. So we left England and the wizarding world altogether, intend on starting a new life.

We now have three more children. Claire, Julia, and Eliza.

But the other day James found a wizarding newspaper saying that May 2nd would be the anniversary of the battle of Hogwarts, the day the wizarding world was ridded of Voldemort.

We had been away for so long that we did not know any goings on in the wizarding world. We decided now would be a good time to go home. Return to the wizarding world now that it was safe.

"Eliza Marie!" I shouted as our youngest – and most trouble making – daughter giggled in the background. I was now somehow glued to the ceiling. Not actually sure how that happened.

"Sorry mommy, but daddy showed me this new trick," she said sweetly. She was the baby and she knew it. Plus blaming it on daddy got the fire focused on him instead. She was a crafty one.

Too bad daddy wasn't home yet.

"Eliza Marie, I have told you a million times, we do not pull pranks on people, especially not me," I said waving my wand and getting myself down.

"Sorry," she mumbled looking abashed.

"Uh-huh," I muttered. "Go play," I said, she smiled and ran off. "And be home for dinner!"

Tonight was the night we would spring the news on them. Tell them that we were leaving our home in America for a home in England and spots at Hogwarts. I knew they would be excited.

Dinner didn't take to long to arrive. James came home just as I was putting food on the table.

"How was everyone's day?" he asked.

"Good," Julia said.

"Mine was great!" Claire said. "I met this really cute boy, Jake, he asked me on a date,"

James looked faintly sick but I just smiled. "That's wonderful sweetie, don't you think so James?"

"Wha- oh yeah, wonderful," Claire giggled slightly. "And what did you do today Eliza?"

"Nothing," she said sweetly.

"I wouldn't call gluing mommy to the ceiling nothing," I mutter. James starts to laugh until I glare fiercely at him. He shuts up immediately.

"You know that's not right Eliza," he said trying to keep a straight face.

"I know," she said.

"Now, mommy and daddy have an announcement to make," I say. That gets all three girls' attentions without fail.

"What is it?" Claire asks.

"We're moving to England," James says.

"What!" they all shout.

"No! No! No! I have a date with Jake I can't just move to England!" Claire shouts.

"I can't leave school; our final three soccer games are in the next month." Julia said.

"And what about Abbie?" Eliza asks.

"We're not leaving right away, Julia can finish her soccer season," I said.

"What about Jake?" Claire asked.

"Honey, when have you stayed with a boy longer than a month?" I ask seriously.

"What about Abbie?" Eliza asks again.

"I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends in England." I say.

"Why are we moving to England?" Julia asks.

"Because we found out the wizarding world is safe,-"

"Do we get to go to Hogwarts?" Claire asks suddenly excited.

"Yes,-"

"YAY!" both Julia and Claire yell. Eliza smiles.

**One month later – April 16****th**** 2000 –**

"I told you to have everything packed already!" I shouted, Claire was texting her friend having absolutely nothing packed.

"But mom! I'm not gonna see Briana for who knows how long." She whined.

"You can text her after you pack," I said pointing at the large brown box, now charmed with and undetectable extension charm.

She rolled her eyes but started throwing the contents of her room in the box. I sighed and checked on Julia.

She had almost everything packed, "how did you say we were getting to England?" she asked.

"Aperation," I say. "Now are you almost finished?"

"Yup just a few more things," she says tossing her pillows in from across the room. "Three point shot!" she yells. A true sports player. She will probably be on the quidditch team when she gets to Hogwarts.

"Eliza is you finished packing?" I ask. Eliza sits on the floor in her now empty room bouncing a bouncy ball in front of her.

"Yes," she says.

"Thank goodness, we're leaving in a few hours and your sisters still are not packed." I say frustrated.

"Do you want to play mommy?" she asks.

"No thank you sweetie, I still need to finish packing," I say. She shrugs and throws the ball hard against the wall.

**Later that day. **

I walk through the house one more time as we are about to leave. The rooms are empty and we hold everyone that was once in these rooms in a few shrunken boxes.

"That's everything," James says. "Is everybody ready?"

We all nod. James holds tight to Julia and Eliza while I take Claire's arm. We aperate to our new house in Godric's hallow, on the other side of the village from where our original house there is.

"Can we go shopping?" Claire asks.

"Please mom!" Julia and Eliza join in. James makes a puppy dog face.

"Fine, we need food anyway," I say.

"YAY!" all four yell.

"Can we use floo powder?" Eliza asks.

"I don't see why not," I say pulling a small sack from one of the boxes. "Diagon alley,"

Once we floo to the bookshop we walk down the road and I see a shop I have never encountered before. Weasley's Wizard Weazes! The most colorful shop in the alley.

"Can we go in there mom?" Julia asks. The other three join in the pleading.

"Alright, but don't stay to long," I say as they jump for joy and run into the joke shop.

I follow at a slightly slower pace.

When I do enter I see a sort of gathering, maybe a party is in the middle of the store.

One of the red haired men – for most of them were in fact redheads – held up a rainbow haired boy. He told the crowd how it was the boy's 2nd birthday party.

"Three cheers for Teddy Lupin!" he shouted. The little boy smiled widely. "We all know his father would be very proud of him right?" Teddy nodded. "Because what did you do all by yourself today?"

The little boy smiled even wider. "I pulled a prank on auntie Ginny!" the crowd laughed.

A young red haired woman stood up. "And I would just like to thank little Teddy here for that wonderful frog in my soup this morning," the crowd laughed again.

Another woman stood up, she had colorful hair just like Teddy. She took the little boy in her arms.

I stared at her. There was defiantly something familiar about her that I could not place. And the man had said his last name was Lupin. But he couldn't be Remus's could he? And the part about his father being dead. I hoped beyond hope that it wasn't Remus.

I was confused to say the least.

A stack of daily prophets sat on the counter. I picked one up wanting to know what was going on.


	2. Wedding anouncement

April 2000

Desiree – 21

Chloe – 2

Harry – 19 (almost 20)

Claire – 16

Julia – 12

Eliza – 9

**Lily and James Potter survived the attack against Voldemort but were told that Harry and Desiree did not survive. (If you are confused about Desiree read my story 'The Price We Pay') this is a story similar to 'across the sea' which I wrote a very long time ago. That one I will not be continuing since I have reread it and found plenty of problems with it. **

**Back to my point, Lily and James are living in America to escape the wizarding world and no one knows they are alive. **

Chapter 02

Once the kids were tucked snugly in their beds and most of the house was unpacked I found time to read the paper I had picked up earlier.

The first thing that caught my attention was the wedding announcement on the front page. Usually those were towards the back. These people must be famous.

_Announcing the wedding of ginevra Molly Weasley and Harry James Potter – the boy who lived, the chosen one, the man who defeated you-know-who, and so many other names that became him. The wedding will take place at Ginny's childhood home on May 19__th__. Invitation required._

_We all know that Harry's parents would be proud of him were they alive today, we grieve them as always for their sacrifice for their son and daughter. _

I stared at the paper for a long time. No. Harry was dead; the minister himself had told us that. But why then was his name in the paper. I checked the date. Yup this month this year. And what did it mean his parents were dead. We were his parents and I certainly didn't feel dead.

At least not in that sense. If the entire wizarding world thought we were dead – including our own children how on earth could I not feel dead inside?

I needed air. And proof of what was going on. I wrote a note to James and walked out of the house to the small church where the graveyard was. If they believed we were dead – and it certainly seamed like they did – them even without bodies they would have put gravestones up for us.

As I entered the graveyard I noticed I was not alone. A boy about 19 or 20 kneeled in front of a gravestone. I started to move away but I saw in the moment that his hair was messy jet black just like James's. I could not help my curiosity.

"Teddy turned 2 today; I hope he turns out just like his father. He was one of the only father figures I've known. Other than Sirius and Mr. Weasley that is. Speaking of which, Mr. Weasley is actually going to be my dad soon. Well dad in law, I'm getting married to Ginny; I wish you guys could be there. But I know you'll be watching, Sirius tells me everyday that you are," he said. "I've told you a lot about Ginny, she's kind and wonderful and I love her, plus she's a redhead. Sirius took care to point out how ironic that was, she's got a fiery temper though and he learned his lesson."

"Harry!" the girl I had seen in the joke shop called walking over to the boy – Harry.

"Oh hey gin," he said as she sat down next to him. "I was just talking to my parents,"

"Do you want me to go?" she asked starting to get up.

"No," he said pulling her back down. "I was just telling them how we're getting married in a month's time,"

"Oh, did you tell them about Teddy's birthday?" she asked. Harry nodded. "And bill and fleur?"

"No, I was just getting to that," he said turning back to the stone. "Bill and fleur are due to have their baby in a few weeks, they think they'll use a French name if it's a girl,"

Ginny yawned. "They said I might be godmother,"

"Good choice," she yawned again. "Is somebody ready to go home?"

"Yes actually that's why I came out here, I was about to fall asleep on your couch and mum would have a fit if that happened," she said.

"Alright, for both our sakes, let's get you home," he said picking her up bridal style and turning on the spot.

Curiosity over came me and I moved closer to the stone. I nearly fainted at the words.

**James Potter **

**Born 27 March 1960**

**Died 31****October 1981**

**Lily Potter **

**Born 30 January 1960**

**Died 31 October 1981**

**The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death **

**A/N yes I know it's really short but the rest will be longer. Please review it makes me happy. I don't have a full plot yet so if I could get some suggestions I would be forever grateful. **

**Twinesstar. **


	3. Veritiserum

April 2000

Desiree – 21

Chloe – 2

Harry – 19 (almost 20)

Claire – 16

Julia – 12

Eliza – 9

**Lily and James Potter survived the attack against Voldemort but were told that Harry and Desiree did not survive. (If you are confused about Desiree read my story 'The Price We Pay') this is a story similar to 'across the sea' which I wrote a very long time ago. That one I will not be continuing since I have reread it and found plenty of problems with it. **

**Back to my point, Lily and James are living in America to escape the wizarding world and no one knows they are alive. **

Chapter 03

I was in shock, I could not understand, could not think.

I barely knew what was true and what was not. So I made a list in my head of the things I knew for sure.

Harry is alive

Harry – and the entire wizarding world – think we're dead

Harry is getting married next month

We had been lied to

It took me a while to make myself move my legs, when I finally did I forced myself to walk back to the house.

"James," I said.

"Lil? Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked from the kitchen table.

"Yes, but I don't think you're going to like it much," I said handing him the newspaper.

He stared at it for a long time, "so they think we're dead," he said finally.

"Yes, I was in the graveyard and they even put up tombstones," I said. "Who told them we were dead? Why would they lie to them? And to us?"

"To us?" James asked.

"Didn't you read?" I asked. "Harry and Desiree are alive, minister fudge either didn't know or lied to us, which do you think is more plausible?"

"Um, not sure what plausible means exactly but I'm guessing he lied," James said. I couldn't keep a fond grin off my face as I nodded.

"That's it, your Christmas present this year will be a dictionary," I said.

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" James insisted.

"James, you called Larry an ekeltrishan," I said. "Again,"

"Well that word is hard," he said defensively. "But at least I know what it means,"

"Fine, but that doesn't change my decision," I say.

"I think you're avoiding the situation Lils," he said. "We'll go to the ministry tomorrow,"

"Alright," I said. "But for now let's get some sleep,"

"Agreed," he said picking me up bridal style and carrying me up the stairs.

"I do have legs you know!" I hiss in his ear. He just smirks.

"I am well aware you have legs, but I prefer to carry you right now," he says walking easily up the stairs.

MoM

"So you're saying that you are Lily and James Potter?" the reception guy asked laughing hysterically. "You do know you're dead right?"

"I don't feel dead," I snapped. He stopped laughing.

"Look lady, I know the Potters, Harry wouldn't thank you at all for pretending to be his dead parents, it's a sensitive thing," he said.

"We are not pretending!" I hiss angrily, "you get us a meeting with the minister to explain or so help me I will cut your ears off and stick with a permanent sticking charm to your buttocks!"

The man looked frightened. "I have to admit you do sound like Lily,"

"That's because I am you halfwit!" I hiss.

"'scuse me," James says, "but who are you?"

"Arthur Jacobs," he said.

"Arty!" James laughs. "Wow, I can not believe I didn't recognize you,"

"You're just saying that," arty said defiantly.

"I'll prove it Art, you were a Hufflepuff the same year as me, Lily, and the rest of the marauders, we hade herbology together. You were not good at the subject at all and constantly paired up with Lily because she was extra good at it. I know sprout was almost never happy after that class and you got tons of detentions for mutilating the plants," James said.

"That's nothing, you coulda asked anyone," he mumbled looking unsure now.

"Well I know something," I said. "After you got detention one day, I waited for you and you told me why you were having such a hard time in herbology,"

I whispered in his ear what he'd whispered to me all those years ago. He blushed and nodded.

"Alright fine, I believe ya," he said turning to the intercom thing. "Minister, I got some people here that need to see you immediately,"

"Send them up, I'm not busy," the minister – obviously not fudge – said in a low deep voice.

"You know where it is?" arty asked.

We nodded and walked towards the lifts. "What did you tell him?" James asked.

"Sorry, I promised I wouldn't tell anyone," I said. James nodded.

"Do you think the minister will be surprised?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't doubt it," I say. James snickers, I try to be mature and keep in my laughter, but his face makes it impossible.

"Stop it!" I laugh slapping his arm – somewhat – lightly.

We knocked on the door to the minister's office. I was surprised to see that Kingsley Skacklebolt opened the door. We had known him at Hogwarts since he was about two years ahead of us.

"Hello, did art send you?" he asked in a deep voice. I really should have recognized it over the com.

"Yes, we have something very important to tell you," I said. He nodded and closed the door and gestured us to sit in the chairs in front of his desk.

"please sir, I know this is going to come off as strange, and possibly alarming, but we," I gestured to James and I, "are Lily and James Potter,"

Kingsley just stared at us for a moment.

"Can you prove that?" he asked after a moment.

"With veritaserum," I said.

"Of course, I will have my aurors bring it up," Kingsley said putting his head in the already green fireplace. "Potter! Weasley! Weasley!" he called.

I wasn't really surprised that two Weasleys would be aurors; they did have 7 kids when we left for America and many cousins. But I was surprised when only one auror that came through the fireplace had red hair. The other two had messy black. One with green eyes and one with hazel.

I clapped my hand over my mouth, they were my babies, I just knew it. And Desiree was apparently married. To a Weasley. I couldn't choose a better family for two of my children to marry into. Ginny and … one of the six boys – though I hoped it was one of the twins.

"These are my top aurors," Kingsley said. "Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Desiree Weasley,"

"Scuse I minister, but what are we doing here?" the redhead – Ron – asked.

"Did you bring the veritaserum?" Kingsley asked. Ron nodded and pulled a vile of clear liquid from his robes. "Then I would ask you to administer it to these people right here," he nodded towards us.

Ron uncorked the vile and dropped a single drop on each of our tongues.

"These people claim to be Lily and James Potter," Kingsley said.

Harry and Desiree's heads snapped up at the same time. "Impossible," they snapped.

"Ask them yourself," Kingsley said. Kingsley stepped towards the door "I have some business to attend to, if you will excuse me,"

"What are you names?" Desiree asked as he left.

"Lily Marie Potter," I said.

"James marshal Potter," James said.

Harry and Desiree gave us blank stares. Ron just looked thoughoughly confused.

"Where on earth have you been for the past 18 and a half years?" Desiree demanded harshly.

"America," I found myself saying.

"Why?" she growled.

"We were told that our children, Harry and Desiree had been killed in the attack,"

"Who told you that?" Ron asked in shock.

"Minister Fudge,"

"Idiot," Ron muttered while the others scowled.

"Any idea why he would say that?" Harry asked.

"No," I said.

"But why did you leave?" Harry asked harshly. "You had friends here, why did you leave your friends?"

"We didn't want to pity; we wanted to grieve alone,"

"But your friends think you're dead! Sirius and Remus spent years grieving you, thinking you were dead and you didn't even bother to owl them a Christmas card!" Harry yelled.

"Harry," Desiree said. Though she also looked upset she tried to calm him.

"No Dez!" he snapped, he turned back to us. "I want you to answer my question, how come you didn't have contact with your best friends? Did you know your stupid decision would condemn me to spend most of my childhood with the Dursleys? I only ever saw Remus and Sirius and Desiree on holidays! The rest of the time I was locked up in that house! I never had a real childhood! They never treated me like a son! They treated me like a house elf!" he screamed. "And did you know that I was put in life and death situations every year because Voldemort didn't actually die that night? I never had a peaceful life even after I got away from the Dursleys! Ron, Hermione and I got rid of him, with a heavy cost and if I could have used parents at any point in my life it would have been then! But no, you were off it America, enjoying your lives,"

He glared at us again and stomped angrily from the room.

"Harry!" Desiree yelled running after him, Ron looked awkward for a moment then ran after both of them.

"I listened as closely as I could but even then I could only pick up bits and pieces.

"I trust them –" Desiree said.

"How can you? They abandoned us?" Harry yelled. Desiree's voice dropped to a whisper so I only picked up a little.

"Don't understand," "parent," "Teddy and Issie," "how would you feel?"

Harry started yelling again. "It's not the same thing!" he yelled. "I would never leave the rest of my family even if I thought Teddy and Issie were dead?"

"Maybe not," Desiree said. "But they're not your children are they?"

"I love them like they are!" Harry yelled. It sounded like he stormed off.

Desiree and Ron came back in the room looking tired. "I don't know how much you heard, probably a lot, but Harry will need some time to cool off. I would just let him be for a while," she said.

I nodded. "What did he mean life and death situations every year?"

"Now that is a long story," Desiree sighed. "And I don't know all of it, only Harry really knows what happened most of the time, but we can fill you in on the details,"

"Thank you," I said.

"Why don't we head over to the burrow and we can all help explain?" Ron asked.

"Alright, but can we get our girls first?" James asked. Desiree's eyes hardened slightly but she nodded.

"You know how to get to the burrow I trust?" she asked. We nodded. "I'll tell Molly and we'll get the family together,"

**A/N yay! It's finally here! And I just wanted to say thank you for all the reviews I got! You guys actually filled the quota for the chapter! Let's see I have 7 now and I would like 15 before I put the next chapter on. I will not be putting it on sooner, do you all understand? **

**Good. Now I am very thankful to all the people who gave suggestions and I have used quite a few of them already, please send me any suggestions you have because it makes the story more enjoyable for you when I know what you guys are looking for in this story. Oh and look at that I've just broken the 2000 word mark on this chapter! Go me! Remember the more reviews you submit the longer that chapters will be. **

**Thanks. **

**Twinesstar. **


	4. The Sorcerer's Stone

**A/N maybe it's a stupid question but do you think I should switch over to 3****rd**** person for everyone or just do 3****rd**** person when Lily's not around and keep Lily in 1****st**** person? **

**Declaimer – (I guess I'm supposed to do these so, her it goes) I do not own Harry Potter. **

April 2000

Desiree – 21

Chloe – 2

Harry – 19 (almost 20)

Claire – 16

Julia – 12

Eliza – 9

**Lily and James Potter survived the attack against Voldemort but were told that Harry and Desiree did not survive. (If you are confused about Desiree read my story 'The Price We Pay') this is a story similar to 'across the sea' which I wrote a very long time ago. That one I will not be continuing since I have reread it and found plenty of problems with it. **

**Back to my point, Lily and James are living in America to escape the wizarding world and no one knows they are alive. **

Chapter 04

We hadn't told the girls what was going on when we left this morning so we figured now would be a good time to tell them. Before we went to the burrow.

"Girls, we have something to tell you," I said. "It's very important so I want all three of you listening,"

The three stopped talking at once to look at me.

"What is it?" Julia asked.

I took a deep breath. "Last night I found a newspaper clipping that had a wedding announcement on the front." They all looked confused about what this had to do with anything.

"Who's wedding announcement?" Claire asked.

"Harry's," I said. They all gasped and stared wide eyed.

"You mean our brother Harry?" Claire asked. I nodded. "But that's impossible! He's dead!"

"Aperenently not," James said. "We went to the ministry today and talked to the minister, and him. Fudge lied to us and lied to the wizarding world. Saying we were dead."

"Why?" Eliza asked.

"I haven't the slightest idea," James said.

"What about Desiree?" Julia asked.

"She's alive too," I said smiling slightly.

"Do we get to meet them?" Eliza asked.

"Yes, actually we're going to the burrow in just a few minutes," James said.

"We get to meet Harry and Desiree!" Eliza exclaimed.

"Well actually you might only meet Desiree, Harry seamed rather angry when we talked to him earlier," I said, the smile falling fast.

"But why?" Julia asked.

"For leaving him," I choke out.

"But you didn't know," Julia exclaims. "The minister told you himself that they were dead, he should know how that feels because he was lied to as well,"

"But if we'd just stayed with Remus and Sirius instead of running off we wouldn't be in this mess," James said. I thought about that. Why didn't we stay with Remus and Sirius and Rachel in the first place? They were our friends, our family. Why didn't we let them know where we were going?

It was most unlike myself and James to forget our friends, because quite honestly I hadn't even really thought about them until this morning when Harry pointed it out. My best friends.

"Well, we're going to be late," I say motioning towards the fireplace. James goes first.

"The burrow!" he shouts. The green flames engulf him. The girls go and I go last.

The burrow was absolutely full of redheads. But there were some with black hair and brown. But mostly red. This _was _the Weasley family.

Desiree was sitting on a couch next to one of the red haired men; he looked exactly like the man I saw in the store the day before, except he had both of his ears.

I saw Sirius standing in the kitchen with his arms around Rachel, his eyes were tight and he kept glancing in James' direction every few seconds. He must have the same feelings about us leaving as Harry. And though I didn't know how long Harry liked to hold grudges I knew Sirius held them for a very long time.

"Alright everybody!" Desiree called standing up. Some of the room quieted but the rest kept talking. "Quiet! Quiet! QUIET!"

The room became silent. "Thank you, now you all know why we have called you here today, a miracle seams to have occurred. Lily and James Potter are alive, but they have been absent from the wizarding world for 18 and a half years, so we are here to fill them in on what happened. First let's introduce ourselves," she pointed at Molly first.

"Molly Weasley,"

"Arthur Weasley,"

"Bill Weasley,"

"Fleur delacour Weasley,"

"Charlie Weasley,"

"George Weasley,"

"Kennedy Monroe Weasley,"

"Fred Weasley,"

"Ron Weasley,"

"Hermione granger Weasley."

"Ginny Weasley,"

"Tonks," said the colorful haired woman. "And this is Isabelle, Teddy's down for a nap,"

I smiled. I knew I recognized her from somewhere.

"Um I suppose we should introduce ourselves as well," I said. "Lily,"

"James Potter," James said sweeping into a low bow that caused a few people to laugh lightly.

"Claire Potter,"

"Julia Potter,"

"Eliza Potter,"

"Well I suppose we should start with right after the attack," Rachel said. I nodded feeling slightly worried. I didn't want more shouting and yelling. "That night was Halloween, I was at home and Sirius went to check on peter before coming home for the night, but the house was deserted. He feared the worst and went to check on you guys. When he got there the house was in ruins so he sent me a partonus. I got there to see you two being put on stretchers, I checked you myself. There was no pulse," her voice broke off in a sob. It took a minute for her to gain control.

"Harry and Desiree were in Harry's room; Desiree was crying and screaming for you. I took them home and convinced Sirius not to go after peter; instead I went to the ministry alone and told them Sirius had not been the secret keeper. They made Sirius and I both answer under veritaserum,"

"And Harry and Desiree?" I asked remember what Harry had said earlier about the Dursleys.

"Dumbledore told us that Harry had to live under a blood relative of yours roof for at least the school year and we could have him for the summer and all holidays," Rachel said.

"But why?" I asked harshly.

"The blood protection, when you sacrificed yourself for Harry it activated an ancient charm unknown to Voldemort that saved Harry's life, Harry would only be protected from Voldemort and his death eaters as long as he was under the protection of someone who shared your blood. Petunia was the only living relative," Desiree said.

"And you lived with Sirius and Rachel?" I asked.

"Yes, but I went to the same school as Harry and made sure he came over all the time," Desiree said.

"Well nothing much eventful happened for a few years," Rachel said. "Then Harry went to Hogwarts,"

"What happened there?" I asked. Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

"Well, first Harry and I were on the train together because we're best friends and Hermione comes in acting all bookish," Ron starts.

"I was not acting bookish! I was simply excited for Hogwarts as you should well know," Hermione interrupted. Desiree rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, so Hermione comes in all excited and snooty," Ron tries.

"I was not snooty," she injects.

"Actually you kind of were your 1st year," Desiree says.

"Well we don't become friends at first, then during flying lessons Malfoy steels Neville's rememberall," Ron says. "Harry flies up and catches in after a fifty foot dive!"

"No way!" James exclaims.

"Yes way! I saw it!" Desiree says happily.

"Well anyway McGonagall comes out,"

"Ooh, she's not gonna be happy," James mutters.

Half the room bursts out laughing. Molly, Hermione, and Rachel look disapproving.

"Oh, she was happy all right," Ron laughed. "She was so happy she gave him a spot on the quidditch team,"

"No way!" James yelled.

"I know right?" Sirius laughs, "And so she owls me and next morning I'm out buying him the best broom in the market! The nimbus 2000,"

"Well anyway, Hermione gets all snippety and we still don't talk to her," Ron says. Hermione huffs but doesn't argue.

"then when they were learning _wingardium leveossa, _Ron said some pretty mean things about Hermione and she went off crying to the bathroom," Desiree said putting her arm around Hermione. Ron does the same on her other side.

"I'm really sorry about that," he whispers.

"I know," she whispers back.

"So that night someone lets in a giant troll!" George yells.

"A troll?" Julia asks.

"Yup a great big giant one," George said pointing up to the sky.

"How would you know? You weren't even there!" Ron snorts.

"Well anyway, the boys realize Hermione is still in the bathroom and doesn't know about the troll, so they run after her and realize the troll has gone into the girls' bathroom. They don't yell for help instead they charge right in and go to save her."

"With a spell that Ron couldn't do three hours earlier," Fred laughs.

"Huh?" I ask.

"Oh, Ron knocked him out with his own floating club using _wingardium leveossa_," Desiree laughs.

"And then the golden trio is formed!" George yells.

"Better not let Harry hear you saying that," Desiree said. "He hates the name,"

"Well soon after that the trio finds out that there is a 3 headed dog somewhere in the castle,"

"no. no. no. no. "Ron says. "We found fluffy before the troll incident,"

"Fluffy?" I ask.

"The three headed dog," Hermione shudders.

"Hagrid's?" I ask. They all nod.

"So sometime later we find Snape limping and we find out that he was trying to get past the 3 headed dog," Hermione says. James growls but Hermione silences him with a look. "So we ask Hagrid about it and he accidentally lets slip that someone names Nickolas Flamel was involved,"

"One of the only times I've willingly been in the library," Ron mutters.

"So anyway we find out about the philosopher's stone and figure Snape's trying to steel it. So we go to tell Dumbledore only to find that he has been called to the ministry," Hermione says.

"We tell McGonagall and she forbids us to investigate, blah, blah, blah. We do anyways because we're sure he does gonna steel the stone that night. So we learn from Hagrid that fluffy needs music and will go right to sleep so we play him a song on the recorder and jump down a trap door and land on some plant," Ron says.

"Devils snare, Ronald," Hermione sighs.

"Devils snare!" I ask very worried.

"yup and Hermione thankfully pays attention in herbology and says we need light, of course she looses her nerve when I tell her to light a fire and exclaims that there's no Wood! And Harry and I are choking to death," Ron said. Hermione blushed.

"Well we got out and ended up in a room with lots of keys, Harry used his quidditch skills to catch the right key and unlock the door. Then we come across a giant chess board where Ron takes over," Hermione says.

"Oh yeah, it was actually kinda fun, when you didn't think about the life and death part," Ron says. "So we're playing and I figure the only way to win is to take the queen take me,"

"Just to clear this up, is this wizard chess?" I ask worried again.

"Uh, yeah," Ron says. "So anyway the queen takes me and Harry checks the king and him and Hermione go on,"

"we get to a room with a line of potions and a riddle, I figure it out but only one person can go on the other has to go back,"

"So he went alone?" I screeched.

"Yes, he went and Quirrel was standing there, looking at a mirror. Oh yeah the mirror is the same one Harry found at Christmas when he got the invisibility cloak, it shows your hearts true desire. So turns out the stupid turban Quirrel was wearing was concealing Voldemort's head. He gets Harry to get the stone out of the mirror and almost kills him for the stone. But Harry has taken much love in him and destroys Quirrel and Voldemort. Almost killing himself in the process," Desiree finishes.

"Please tell me that's the worst," I say white as chalk and terrified.

"Sorry," Desiree says.

An insistent cry came from upstairs, then another followed. Both Tonks and the Weasley twin sitting next to Desiree – Fred – walked quickly up the stairs.

The room was in silence, waiting for the two to return. They came down each with a toddler in their arms. Tonks had Teddy with his hair bright light blue, no longer crying but rubbing his eyes. Fred held a toddler girl with dark red hair and blue eyes. She reached out for Desiree.

"Mama," she said, Desiree took her and snuggled her.

I stared in shock.

**A/N **

**update: ok, so ive only gotton a few reviews. more please, i want up to 26, that's 10 more from chapter 3 which had 16. please help me reach my quota and i would apreciate some ideas. please. should lily be angry? should james try to kill fred? **

**also you may have noticed that on my acount there is a poll. who should i save in the battle of hogwarts in my story the price we pay? please! please! do the poll, i only have two people so far. you can vote for up to 7 people. **


	5. This conversation is 'not' over

**A/N maybe it's a stupid question but do you think I should switch over to 3****rd**** person for everyone or just do 3****rd**** person when Lily's not around and keep Lily in 1****st**** person? **

**Declaimer – (I guess I'm supposed to do these so, her it goes) I do not own Harry Potter. **

April 2000

Desiree – 21

Chloe – 2

Harry – 19 (almost 20)

Claire – 16

Julia – 12

Eliza – 9

**Lily and James Potter survived the attack against Voldemort but were told that Harry and Desiree did not survive. (If you are confused about Desiree read my story 'The Price We Pay') this is a story similar to 'across the sea' which I wrote a very long time ago. That one I will not be continuing since I have reread it and found plenty of problems with it. **

**Back to my point, Lily and James are living in America to escape the wizarding world and no one knows they are alive. **

Chapter 05

"_Mama," she said, Desiree took her and snuggled her. _

_I stared in shock. _

Desiree looked up. "uh, mum, dad, this is Chloe, my daughter,"

James looked at her unblinking. I stared only for a second before rushing forward and hugging her.

She looked very releaved.

"you're not upset?" she asked.

"why on earth would I be upset?" I asked. "you're 21 and you're married, even if you weren't married before you had the baby you are now,"

"I was mum," she said. "don't worry,"

Meanwhile, James was glaring at Fred.

Fred looked really scared.

"James?" I asked.

"how can you be ok with this?" he nearly growled.

"because first of all they're married," I said. "secondly I trust our daughter especially about this –"

"yeah well I don't trust him," James said glaring lazers into the boy.

"oh gosh," Desiree muttered sitting down again. She seamed to be prepared for a long argument. Sirius was in the background trying his hardest not to laugh.

"and thirdly," I pressed on as though he hadn't spoken. "they are both older than we were when both her and Harry were born, so suck it up,"

"yeah but she was 19 when her daughter was born," James said.

"did I mention married?" Desiree cut in.

"you stay out of this," James said. Desiree snorted.

"excuse me but I think that since I am the subject of your little argument that I should have a place in this conversation. Its my husband and my daughter. We were and still are married. I trust Fred and you should too." She said. "argument over,"

"is most certainly is not over," James yelled.

"yes it most certainly is," Desiree said. "if you want to hear the rest of the story,"

James grumbled but sat back down in his chair.

"we'll talk about this later," he said sternly.

"there's nothing to talk about, but whatever makes you happy," she said.

He mumbled something unitligable and crossed his arms angrily.

Now more than one person was holding in laughter.

"can we continue the story now or what?" James demanded. Most of the girls rolled their eyes and everyone holding in laughter couldn't hold it any more.

Desiree sighed and turned to me ignoring James.

"what do you know of the chamber of secrets?" she asked. My eyes widened.

**A/N yes I know its way way to short, but at least I'm updating. I will have the next chapter up hopefully today or tomorrow. We have company coming tonight so I wont get much done if any so expect it tomorrow. I wont put a quota on the reviews this time since I've waited so long to update. But remember, the more you do now the less I have to ask for in the next chapter. **


	6. The Chamber of Secrets Part 1

**A/N maybe it's a stupid question but do you think I should switch over to 3****rd**** person for everyone or just do 3****rd**** person when Lily's not around and keep Lily in 1****st**** person? **

**Declaimer – (I guess I'm supposed to do these so, here it goes) I do not own Harry Potter. **

April 2000

Desiree – 21

Chloe – 2

Harry – 19 (almost 20)

Claire – 16

Julia – 12

Eliza – 9

Chapter 06

_"what do you know of the chamber of secrets?" she asked. My eyes widened._

"no," I gasped.

Desiree nodded. "oh yes, the Chamber of Secrets," she said. "it started out like any normal year, Harry stayed with the dursleys for the first part of the summer and stayed with us for the second,"

"and dobby showed up to give Harry a warning not to go back to Hogwarts," Ron cut in.

"I should think so if he knew about the chamber of secrets," I muttered.

"who's dobby?" James asked.

"dobby's a house elf," Hermione said. "he came against his master's will to warn Harry not to go back to school, at the dursleys mind. So basically he got Harry in big trouble not only with the dursleys but with the ministry, because they thought he had used underage magic,"

"but it was the house elf?" I confirmed.

"hold on, what did the house elf do to get him in trouble?" James asked.

Ron laughed. "he levitated a pudding dish and dropped it on someone's head,"

"but thankfully we got it all sorted out," rachel said. "Harry came back to our house after that and we enjoyed the rest of the summer,"

"who was your defense teacher?" julia asked. a few people looked at her. The girls had been quite for the past while. "what? You said that quirel guy died right?"

"yeah," desiree said. "quirel died and was replaced by lockheart,"

The entire room, save the new comers and molly, mimed barfing.

"lockheart? You mean the one who wrote all those household books?" I asked blushing only slightly. James rolled his eyes.

"yes, that's the one," molly said with tight lips. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"anyway," desiree cut in, "so that idiot, became our defense against the dark arts teacher, because he was the only one who aplied for the job. By this time he had written half a dozen more books about himself and his oh so marvolous achievements, but more on that later,"

"so after making us buy the entire set of books-," Hermione started

"dad and malfoy's dad had a brawl in the bookstore!" Ron cut in.

"yes thank you ronald," Ginny said. "so after getting all our books, we all stayed at the weasleys. A few days later we went to catch the train and we were running late."

"you forgot the part about the flying car," Ron said.

"right so dad had this muggle car that he had made bigger on the inside and enchanted to fly," Ginny said. "the twins, Ron, and Harry had tested it out earlier in the summer,"

"did not," Ron disagreed. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"anyway, so we were running late and since it was my first year mum made sure I went through first, we went through and it was two to eleven, Harry and Ron run at the barrier at the same time and-"

"wham!" Ron yells startling everyone – even those who already knew the story – I myself jumped about a foot in the air and both chloe and Teddy started crying.

"Ron!" desiree yelled, her fingers twitching dangerously towards her wand.

"sorry," he said. Desiree rolled her eyes but continued to glare at him as she calmed her daughter.

"hold up, hold up," I said. "you cant just crash into the barrier,"

"but we did," Ron said. I raise my eyebrow. "I'm serious,"

"no you're not I am," Sirius said. Rachel whacked his head. "ow,"

"he's not lying," Hermione said. "they really did crash into the barrier, you'll understand soon,"

"right so Harry and I crash into the barrier and of course two twelve year olds, not really thinking decide that the best course of action is to fly to Hogwarts in a flying car," Ron laughs. Hermione rolls her eyes but not in the disaproving way I would have expected. "and it worked well for the most part, but just as we were getting close to Hogwarts, the engine starts sputtering, I think Harry said it ran out of gas or something,"

"don't tell me you crashed!" I exclaimed. Ron looked sheepish.

"we're alright though," he said.

"yeah because crashing into the whomping willow is the epitome of alright," Ginny muttered obviously not wanting to be heard.

James and I both heard her though.

"THE WHOMPING WILLOW!" we yelled, both knowing exactly how dangerous that tree was and exactly why it was planted in the first place.

Chloe started crying again. Desiree glared at James, but not me. She must still have been mad about the argument.

"yeah, the whomping willow, we got a bit roughed up and I broke my wand but other than that, fine," Ron said.

"And the car," Hermione promted Ron.

"oh yeah, the car opened its doors and threw us out and then drove into the forest," he said.

"I'm sorry, did you say the car 'drove into the forest'?" I asked.

"uh… yeah," Ron said.

"anyway, so they go into the castle and try to sneek into the feast, but Snape finds them," Hermione said. "he threatens the usual,"

"expulsion," Ron said in a really bad impresion of snape.

"right so he threatens to expel them because the invisibility on the car wasn't working and they were seen," Hermione said disaprovingly. "but mcgonagal gave them another chance,"

"on to the important stuff," Ginny said. "so lockheart is a total jerk, which we all knew, except Hermione,"

"hmff," Hermione grumbled. "I know now,"

"so during quidich practice one morning they find out that malfoy has bought his way onto the team with brand new nimbus 2001s, they start a huge argument, Hermione tries to help and malfoy calls her a… a…" Ginny couldn't continue.

Hermione took a deep breath, "he called me a mudblood,"

"he did not!" James growled. Hermione nodded.

"Ron stood up for me though, even with his broken wand," Hermione said.

"hold on," I said. "he's still using the broken wand,"

"money was a bit tight," Ron muttered.

"had we heard about it we would have gotten a new wand no matter what," molly huffed. "a wand is not something that can be taken for granted."

"so you didn't know?" I asked.

"not until he came home that summer," molly huffed.

"anyway," Ginny cut in, "so Ron defends Hermione, trying to cast a spell to make malfoy eat slugs, it backfires and Ron ends up barfing slugs for the next two hours,"

"it was terrible," Ron muttered.

"so after that it was halloween," Hermione said.

"and Nick invited us to his deathday party," Ron said shuddering. James laughed.

"he tricked you into going too?" he asked. Ron nodded. "he tricked us into going our first year, scared the heck out of us,"

Ron nodded. "bit freeky, but what happened after was even worse,"

"as we were coming out of the party Harry heard this voice, something about 'ripping and tearing and killing'" Hermione said.

"what?" I asked. hearing voices? What was that about?

"we'll get to that," Hermione said. "so we followed the voice and we ended up in this hallway, on the wall there was this writing, it said."

"the chamber of secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware," Ron said. Ginny shuddered and snuggled close to her mother's side. Molly patted her hair. I looked at her in concern. Sure the others seamed shaken, but she was really shaken. Something bad had probably happened to her. No, it was probably just because she was the youngest and she wasn't used to all the near death experiences.

"wait the chamber of secrets is real?" I asked.

"yes, real and deadly," Hermione said. "under the writing was filch's cat, hanging but her tail, apparently dead,"

"so everyone comes from the feast and sees us standing in a hallway with the apparently dead cat, and everyone jumps to conclusions, says we – or mostly Harry – were the ones who killed mrs. Norris," Ron said.

"dumbledore comes and sorts everyone out," desiree said.

"don't forget snape threatening to take Harry's quidich privilages away," one of the twins cuts in. everyone rolls their eyes.

"tell me about quidich," James says. Like we weren't just talking about something important.

"I was just getting to that," desiree said. "first quidich match of the season,"

"wait!" Hermione cuts in. "you forgot the part about us thinking malfoy is the heir of slytherin,"

"Hermione," Ron whined.

"no, this is important," Hermione insists, glaring at him. "so, we obviously think that malfoy is the heir of slythirin because who else, so we come up with a plan,"

"uh, you came up with it, neither Harry or I is that clever," Ron said.

"fine, I came up with the plan to brew polyjuice potion and sneek into the slytherin common room to test our suspicions," Hermione said.

"whoa, whoa, whoa, you wanted to brew polyjuice potion? As a second year?" I asked. not even I could do that.

"Hermione's the best of our year," Ron said.

"yeah but polyjuice potion," I said. "I could barely make that in NEWTs classes,"

"well Hermione is brilliant," George said.

"anyway, to get the book from the library we need to have a teacher sign a note, and the only one dumb enough to sign something without looking," Ron said.

"lockheart," almost everyone said at the same time.

"right so he signs the form and we get the book," Ron says. "and now onto quiddich,"

"right so first quidich match of the season, gryfindor vs. slytherin, malfoy and Harry as seakers, and of course Wood – quidditch captain – had to give Harry the most fantastic advice ever, get the snitch or die trying, it all seams like a normal game," George said.

"when suddenly a bludger was headed towards Harry," Fred said.

"that's normal, bludgers are supposed to do that," James said.

"wrong," George said. "this bludger not only went after Harry but when Fred and I shot the bludger away, it came back,"

"a rough bludger?" I asked wide eyed.

"yup, it went after Harry for the entire game, we called a time out at one point and Harry managed to convince us not to help him with the bludger – all thanks to Wood's pep talk," Fred said.

"so basically by the end of the game Harry caught the snitch, no surprise there and the bludger hit him in the arm," desiree said.

I gasped. "take him to madam pomfry,"

"he tried," Ron snorted.

"what do you mean he tried?" I asked.

"I mean he tried to get up and go to the hospital wing but lockheart got in the way and tried to show his brilliance at bone healing," Ron said.

"let me guess, something went wrong," I said.

"Harry ended up having to regrow all the bones in his arm," Hermione said.

James shuddered, once all the bones in his right arm had been shattered so much madam pomfry had had to vanish the bones and regrow them. Harry's injury sounded like a regular break, clean and easily fixed.

"anyway, that night Harry gets a visitor," desiree said. "dobby, he came back and told Harry that he needed to leave,"

"wait, so you're saying that dobby sent the bludger after him?" I asked.

Desiree nodded. "and closed the barrier,"

"why?" James asked.

"James have you been listening at all or are you just thick?" I snapped. "the chamber of secrets of course,"

"yeah I got that part, i'm just wondering why the house elf is so concerned," James said.

"well his family probably had all the information, or they were the ones plotting it so he knew," I said.

"again, I got that, but why does the house elf care?" he asked.

"because he's dobby," a new voice said. We all looked up to see Harry standing in the doorway. "dobby was a good elf, he was odd, and he was always just the tiniest bit crazy, but he was loyal and a great friend,"

Harry sat down between Hermione and Ginny, Ginny leaned into him the way she had been doing earlier with her mum. Like she was frightened of something.

"but he tried to kill you," I said.

"he tried to save me," Harry said. "the chamber was dangerous, I'm not gonna lie, and dobby knew that, he just wanted me safe,"

"can we continue the story?" Sirius whined. I laughed and desiree nodded.

"after dobby left dumbledore and mcgonagal came in with someone on a stretcher," desiree said. "it was colin creavy, a really annoying but super kind and loyal first year gryfindor,"

"muggleborn?" I asked.

"yes, muggleborn, and petrified," she said. I nodded, the chamber of secrets was built by slitherin, enemies of the heir. Muggleborns.

"so the next morning Harry leaves and finds Ron and Hermione making the polyjuice potion in the bathroom on the second floor," Desiree said.

"the girls bathroom?" James asked.

"yeah why?" Hermione asked.

"well its just, isn't that moaning myrtle's bathroom?" he asked.

"that's the one, less chance of being disturbed," Hermione said.

"I've got a question," I said. "to make polyjuice potion, if I remember correctly, you need a few ingredients that aren't commonly found in the student cupboard. How are you going to get those?"

"that was a bit tricky, we had to create a diversion in potions, and Hermione had to sneak into Snape's private stores and steal the potion ingredients," Ron said. We stared at him with open mouths.

"no, not possible," I said.

"well that's how it happened," Ron said.

"dueling club," Harry said quietly to Ron.

"right dueling club," Ron said. "so later that day we went to Lockhart's dueling club,"

"why?" James asked.

"because we didn't know he'd be hosting," Ron said. "anyway so we're there and Harry and malfoy duel – Snape's idea – and malfoy conjures up a snake, Lockhart attempts to get rid of the snake but the snake starts going after Justin, and Harry tells it to back off,"

"impossible," James said. "Harry is not a parsal tongue,"

**A/N sorry sorry sorry about the slow update, you guys have been so loyal and i've been lazy, there really is no excuse for it. but there is also no excuse for someone cussing me out in reviews just because i havent updated in a while. if i get many more of those i might not feel like posting anymore because getting cussed out makes me feel like my work is not worth your time. just try to remember that people online are people too and they dont deserve to be cussed out. **

**twinesstar. **


	7. The Chamber of Secrets Part 2

**A/N maybe it's a stupid question but do you think I should switch over to 3****rd**** person for everyone or just do 3****rd**** person when Lily's not around and keep Lily in 1****st**** person? **

**Declaimer –I do not own Harry Potter. **

April 2000

Desiree – 21

Chloe – 2

Harry – 19 (almost 20)

Claire – 16

Julia – 12

Eliza – 9

Chapter 07

"_Impossible," James said. "Harry is not a parseltongue," _

The group in front of us looked at each other uncomfortably, especially Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Actually dad, I am," Harry said after a minute. James burst out laughing.

"no, that's impossible, no one in the potter family is a parseltongue, no one, I can trace back the whole line if you want, and Lily's family are muggles," James said.

"Yeah we know, believe me, Sirius was doing research for days," Harry said cracking a smile.

"Then how…?" James didn't seem to be able for form proper words or think coherently.

"It will all be explained, but trust me, I'm not evil," Harry said.

"Of course you're not," I said immediately. No son of mine was evil, parseltongue or not.

"Can we move on with the story?" Julia asked impatiently.

"Right so after Harry gets the snake to back off Justin, everyone knows Harry is a parseltongue and starts thinking he's the heir of Slytherin," Desiree says rolling her eyes.

"But didn't Harry make the snake back off?" I asked.

"Yup," Desiree said.

"And isn't Harry in Gryffindor?" I asked.

"Yup," she said.

"And isn't his best friend a muggleborn?" I asked.

"Yup," Desiree said again.

"Then on what grounds do they have to make such a stupid accusation?" I demanded.

"We're not really sure," Desiree said.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Well I mean he was speaking to the snake, and apparently it looked like he was edging it on and everyone just wanted to believe they knew who the heir was so they did, I mean they're just stupid teenagers," Desiree said.

"We believed him though, I mean we're his friends," Ron said. Harry smiled.

"I still don't understand how they could think that," I huffed.

"It's ok I didn't get it either, I mean, I didn't even know I could talk to snakes," Harry said.

"You mean until that incident?" James asked.

"No, not even then, because I thought I was speaking English," Harry said.

"What?" James and I both asked. That wasn't how being a parseltongue worked. You knew you were hissing that was the point.

"I'm serious," Harry said.

"No I'm –"Sirius started, but Rachel managed to cover his mouth.

"Go on Harry," she said while Sirius pouted.

"I really didn't know, Harry and Ron had to explain it to me," Harry said. "Anyway, so the next day I decided to find Justin and tell him that I had stopped the snake from biting him not egged it on, but herbology – the only class we had together – was cancelled due to a snow storm. So I went to find him and eventually found a bunch of hufflepuffs in the library, Ernie was telling them how terrible I was and how because I defeated Voldemort as a baby I was an evil powerful dark lord trying to destroy everyone,"

I burst out laughing at this, "what?"

"By his reasoning, Voldemort only came after me because I was supposed to be a powerful dark lord and he didn't want competition, which is almost true," Harry said.

"It's not true Harry," Hermione said. "True he wanted to get rid of you because you would be powerful but not competition and certainly not a dark wizard,"

"Do they know?" I asked.

"About the prophecy? Yeah everyone knows, I don't keep secrets from family," Harry said smiling at the people around the room.

"So anyway after I told off Ernie I left the library very angry and ran into Hagrid," Harry said.

"Hagrid was coming in from the grounds to show Dumbledore that a bunch of roosters had been killed," Hermione said. Ginny cringed into Harry's side further, scrunching up her eyes. Harry stroked her hair and whispered in her ear.

Hermione sent an apologetic glance at Ginny.

Now I was really confused, maybe she was scared of the chamber of secrets but why would she be freeking out over some dead roosters? There had to be more to this than we were being told. But it would probably be answered later so I kept my mouth shut.

"Anyway," Ron said. "So Harry keeps walking and gets to another hallway where Justin is lying on the floor,"

"What?" I said.

"Yeah, Justin was lying on the floor petrified," Ron said. "but that's not even the weird part, nearly headless Nick was floating perfectly still but no longer was he his usual pale self," Hermione rolled her eyes at his joke. "Instead he was smoky and black,"

"Huh?" I asked, more confused than ever. What could do that to ghost?

"Harry run!" James said at the same time.

"I tried," Harry sighed.

"What happened? Everyone was in class," James asked.

"Peaves," Harry muttered. James looked like he wanted to laugh and kill Peaves at the same time.

"Now you're in trouble," I muttered.

"Yup, pretty much," Desiree snorted.

"Right so McGonagall comes out and I think I'm done for," Harry said.

"But McGonagall's fair, there's no way she would believe you were the one who did it," James said.

"You're right she didn't," Harry said. "And I know that now, but back then I barely knew her,"

"Right so she takes Harry up to Dumbledore's office and he sees the sorting hat," Ron said. Harry cringed.

"Ok before we go on there's something you need to know," Harry sighed. "When I was sorted into Gryffindor, the sorting hat actually wanted to put me in… Slytherin,"

My eyes widened, James gasped.

"NO!" he yelled scaring everyone in the room – none of whom looked surprised at all – and woke up both toddlers again.

"DAD!" Desiree screamed. James looked sheepish and very scared.

"Sorry but… he can't be in Slytherin, he just can't," James said.

Desiree took a deep breath and handed Chloe to Fred.

"You listen to me, and you listen well, because Harry is the best wizard you will ever meet, and so what if he would have done well in Slytherin, because you know what, so would you. Slytherin values the qualities of cunning and ambition, knowing what you want and going for it. and if I recall you possess every one of those qualities, yes Slytherin has gained a bad reputation over the last few years but you know what, they are not all bad people," Desiree said. Her voice was steady but powerful she glared at James like she wanted to kill him but didn't at the same time. Then she looked at me and gave me a small smile.

"You- you're not in Slytherin are you?" James asked looking fearful.

"Heck no," Desiree said snorting. "And quite honestly I like insulting the Slytherins as much as the next Gryffindor. But I will not have you getting upset because Harry almost got sorted into Slytherin, because even if he did he would still be the same person,"

"So you're standing up for Harry, not Slytherin," James clarified.

"Yup," Desiree said sitting back down. "And I just felt like yelling," she whispered the last part to Fred who laughed.

"So anyway," Hermione said breaking the awkward silence. "Harry gets the hat and tries it on again, it tells him the same thing it told him last time, that he would have done well in Slytherin, but Harry forcefully told it that he didn't want to be in Slytherin, so he wasn't."

"You chose?" James asked.

"I didn't want to be in Slytherin, even now that I know that they're not all bad people," he too looked at me when he said that, "I wouldn't have been able to do what I had to do if I had ended up there, my choices determine who I am, not my abilities,"

"So anyway," Ron said again. "Harry takes off the hat and continues to wait around the office, when he sees Fawkes, and Fawkes is starting to shed his feathers,"

James burst out laughing. "He didn't?"

Ron nodded, "he did,"

"Did what?" I asked.

"Burst into flames," James laughed. "Betcha Harry was scared out of his wits,"

Harry huffed from the side. Hermione nodded.

"He starts apologizing to Dumbledore the second he walks in thinking it's his fault," she said.

"Noble git," Ginny muttered, cracking her first smile in a long time. Since we'd started second year actually. Harry pouted. "But don't worry; you're my noble git,"

Harry kissed her cheek and held her tighter. Ron looked pointedly away and Hermione hit the back of her husband's head.

"So anyway, Dumbledore explains phoenixes to Harry and then proceeds to tell Harry that he believes him that he's not the heir of Slytherin," Ron said trying to keep the attention off him. "then Hagrid burst in, he's blubbering about how Harry can't have done it because he was just talking to him, and Dumbledore keeps trying to tell him that he believes Harry but Hagrid just keeps talking,"

James laughed.

"Is all this really important?" I asked. "I mean not to be rude I really do want to know all this, but, can we get to the chamber of secrets?"

"Sorry, guess we got a little carried away," Ron said.

"So on Christmas morning Hermione comes up to our room and tells us that the polyjuice potion is ready," Harry said. "So Ron and I go and trick Crabbe and Goyle – Malfoy's body guards – who are stupider than rocks,"

"Yeah if they're anything like their dads," James muttered.

"And we take their hair," Harry said. "We put it in the polyjuice potion and Ron and I head off to the Slytherin common room,"

"Except we didn't know where it was," Ron said. "that wasted about 15 minutes of our hour, but then we found Malfoy, only time ever were we glad to see him, he took us to the common room and starts to talk to us,"

"Hold on," I said, catching a blip in their story. "Where's Hermione? I mean didn't she make the polyjuice potion,"

"She didn't come, it'll be explained in a minute," Harry said. Hermione groaned and buried her head in Ron's chest.

"Long story short, we found out that Malfoy wasn't the heir and he didn't know who it was," Ron said.

"Whoah, whoah, whoah," James said. "So you went through a month of making polyjuice potion, had to drink that stuff, and found out that it was all for nothing?"

"Sort of, yeah," Ron said. "But we did find out where the Malfoys were hiding all their dark artifacts,"

"I wondered for a long time how you boys got that information," Arthur chuckled.

"So the potion starts wearing off and we go back to moaning myrtle's bathroom and find out that Hermione's potion hadn't worked out so well," Ron said, but he couldn't continue because he seemed to be conflicted between laughing and trying to look sympathetic. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"The Slytherin girl I was trying to turn into, owned a cat," she said.

"You got cat hair?" I asked.

"She did!" George cried laughing. "She was in the hospital wing for weeks with a furry face,"

"Shut up George," Hermione snapped.

"So a few weeks later we went up to see Hermione and when we left we noticed that there was water all over the floor in the corridor where the writing was," Harry said. "And myrtle was crying louder than ever,"

"We get in there and she says someone's thrown a book at her, down the toilet," Ron said. Ginny shuddered, cringing again into Harry's side. "So we pick up the book, turns out it's an empty diary belonging to some guy called T.M. Riddle,"

This time everyone in the room shuddered, especially Harry and Ginny.

"T.M. Riddle?" I asked. "Who's that?"

"You'll find out," Harry muttered darkly.

"All we knew about him at the time was that he'd been awarded special services to the school 50 years previously," Ron said.

"But why did someone throw it away?" I asked.

"You'll find out," Ron said.

"I have a feeling I'm going to end up hating that phrase," I muttered.

"So Harry, being Harry, pockets the book and we go on our way," Ron said. Ginny shuddered again but this time her cheeks filled with flush. "So after Hermione comes out of the hospital wing we show her the diary and she comes to the conclusion that because 50 years ago the chamber was opened and the perpetrator was expelled and 50 years ago Riddle got special services to the school,"

"So Riddle must have caught the perpetrator," I said. That made sense. Maybe a little bit too much sense.

"Hermione got out of the hospital wing in February right?" Fred asked.

"Yeah why?" Hermione asked. Fred and George smirked at each other.

"Guess what holiday is in February," George said, smirking right at Ginny. Ginny's eyes grew wide.

"No!" she moaned her cheeks filling with blush. Harry's cheeks did too.

"uh-uh-uh gin, it's important to the story," Fred said. Desiree rolled her eyes. "So on the day of valentine's day Lockhart decided to be a bigger git than ever before and send his little card carrying cupids to give singing valentines to students throughout the day,"

"Now Ginny at this time was so obsessed with the famous Harry potter that she wrote him such a valentine," George continued.

"That I never meant to send," Ginny snapped. "You two stole it and told the stupid little '_cupids_' to send it to Harry,"

Fred and George both laughed. "Yup,"

_His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, _

_His hair is as dark as a blackboard,_

_I wish he was mine, he's really divine,_

_The hero who conquered the Dark Lord, _

"I hate you," Ginny muttered burrowing her head into Harry's chest. Harry smiled only slightly – at the twins no less – and the twins smirked, high fiving happily.

"Wow you guys memorized that?" I asked choosing to ignore for now the strange silent conversation.

"Yes and sang it in the common room for four hours that night," Ginny muttered.

"Come on gin, looking back on it, it's really kinda cute," Harry said, it was only meant for Ginny but a few people heard him. They pretended they didn't.

"so anyway, in trying to get away from the cupid dwarf his bag split and he got ink all over everything, Malfoy grabbed the diary off the floor believing it was Harry's and Harry summoned got it back with _expelliarmus,_" Percy said, speaking for the first time. "I of course being a prefect and not understanding the situation scolded Harry for using magic in the hallways,"

"Yeah not important Perce," Ron said.

"Hold on," I said. "_Expelliarmus?_"

"Yeah Harry's pretty powerful," Hermione said.

"Point being," Harry said, "when the ink spilled everything was covered, except the diary,"

"Huh?" I asked.

"So that night, I tried putting more ink on it to see if it would stay there, it didn't," he said. "Soaked it right up,"

"What do you mean soaked it right up?" I asked.

"I mean, when I wrote in the diary, the ink disappeared, and the diary wrote back." Harry said.

"But that's not possible," I said.

"It was enchanted, and it is possible," Hermione said. "But more to the point, Harry asked the diary about the chamber of secrets," she turned to glare at Harry. "And turns out the stupid book convinced him to watch a memory framing someone else as the heir,"

"Who?" James asked.

"Hagrid," Harry said looking sick.

"No way," James said forcefully, "Hagrid would never do that; I don't believe it for one second,"

I smiled, so loyal, never willing to believe someone he trusted like that could betray him. But wasn't that what got us into the whole mess? Wasn't that why we were just hearing this story now? Instead of living through it with our son? Because of peter, because peter betrayed us to Voldemort. By framing Sirius and causing him a lot of trouble.

"Wait you said frame," I said. Harry nodded. "Hagrid didn't do it,"

"No, he didn't," Harry said. "But that's why he was expelled, nobody believed him, they all believed Riddle, because he was perfect, he was head boy and everybody loved him," Harry looked like he was about to spit. Ginny rubbed his arm comfortingly.

"Hold on," I said. "You didn't believe him did you?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked very guilty and sick. "Not for long, but yes at the time we did think it was Hagrid,"

"How? How could you not trust your friend so much?" James asked.

"We didn't think he'd done it on purpose," Hermione defended. "we just thought maybe he'd let a monster loose thinking it was harmless, I mean, we'd met fluffy – his three headed dog – we'd seen him give a Teddy bear to a dragon,"

"You have to admit, Hagrid's choices in pets are quite dangerous," molly said.

"Except fang, he's harmless," Ron said.

"anyway, a few days later we come back up to the dormitory and see that it's been destroyed," Harry said.

"Destroyed?" I asked.

"Yup," Ron said. "The whole place looks like it's been searched through and we find out the one thing that was taken,"

"The diary," I said.

"Exactly," Ron said. "so the next morning we're walking down to quidditch and Harry hears the voice coming from the wall again, he tells us of course and Hermione goes running off to the library without telling us what she's doing,"

"Sorry," Hermione mumbled. "I just got excited; I had finally figured it out,"

I thought about that, with the clues she had she had figured it out. That meant that there were enough clues, if only I could figure out what they meant.

Well first off the monster was petrifying people, somehow it was in the walls and only Harry could hear it, and the roosters, all the roosters were dead. That sounded just like a basilisk, but no, that couldn't be, basilisk were killers. They killed people not petrified, that didn't make sense.

"So we get down the quidditch pitch we're just about to take off, when McGonagall comes running out onto the pitch, saying the match is cancelled," Harry said.

"What?!" James demanded. "They can't cancel quidditch,"

I glared at James and looked back at Harry and Ron. Hermione was shaking in Ron's arms.

"No?!" I breathed. "No,"

"What?" James asked. I looked straight at Hermione. She nodded. "What?" James asked again.

"Hermione was petrified," I said.

**A/N dun! Dun! Dun! Hey at least I'm updating. Yay! And I'm so glad for all the kind reviews on the last chamber; they really made me feel better and a lot more confident after being cussed at. Thank you everyone who reviewed. **

**So I wasn't exactly expecting my story to go this way, I told myself each book gets one chapter and then move on with the story. But it looks like this book gets three chapters – I can only imagine what five, six, and seven will be like. So here's what I'm proposing. I can either do the rest of the books or you guys can review and tell me which other two I should do, k? It's your choice as the readers what you want to read. Because I can write either way. **

**Thank you all so very much.**

**Twinesstar. **


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